Fatal accidents on the wane in Delhi, say police

Delhi has proved wrong all those who used to call the city the country’s ‘death capital’. While the national figure for fatal accidents has seen a jump, it has registered a decline in the city.

Delhi has proved wrong all those who used to call the city the country’s ‘death capital’. While the national figure for fatal accidents has seen a jump, it has registered a decline in the city.

HT Image

If Delhi Police officials are to be believed, the reason why this number has gone down is because of intensive prosecutions of violations.

"We have come down heavily on commercial vehicles and are not sparing anyone for even a minor fault. Over 2,000 people were sent to jail for drink driving," said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic).

Drunk drivers and commercial vehicles are two major contributors to road accidents, he said. While taking the whole credit for this ‘achievement’, the Traffic Police said the situation will further improve on Delhi roads in the days to come.

“We are trying to keep the figure of fatalities below 2,000 this year which would be lowest since 2005,” said a police officer. So far, about 1,700 people were killed in Delhi in road accidents, he said.

According to the latest report of National Crime Record Bureau, a total of 133,938 deaths were reported in 2010 due to road accidents across the country, while the previous year the figure stood at 125,660.

Delhi’s record is just the reverse. The city, which registered a total of 2,325 deaths in 2009 due to accidents, has recorded only 2,153 deaths last year.

“We worked on a traffic management strategy and on having features such as intersection management at peak hours, suspending driving licences for drink driving and strict prosecutions for any other road norm violations. The strategy has paid off as fatalities have come down by 8%, when it has gone up by 7% nationally,” said Garg. Delhi witnessed a total of 7,614 accidents in 2009, which has come down to 7,220 .